Crawford's 24-straight wins is longest current boys basketball winning streak in Cornhusker State.
Video: Aaron Alcorn's highlights vs. Hay Springs
See the Crawford junior forward in action for the Rams, who have a 24-game win streak.
Putting together a talent-heavy roster generally goes a long way toward producing deep postseason runs and the hardware that goes along with winning state championships. However, there are no guarantees.
Sometimes the hardware is attained simply because the champion gets hot at the right time, sneaks up on the rest of the field and steals the show.
While the usual hombres are once again favorites to win it all in Nebraska, so long as they survive the chaos that is Nebraska boys district basketball, MaxPreps is taking a look at those Cornhusker State teams that are hot at the moment. Some of the names on our Nebraska Top 10 boys basketball winning streaks post won't surprise our readers – but some may.
Crawford, who carried a three-game winning streak into last year's Class D2 state basketball tournament before falling to eventual state champion Humphrey St. Francis in the quarterfinals, leads the state with 24 straight triumphs, all of which came this season. The Rams are ranked ninth in Class D2 in the latest MaxPreps computer basketball rankings, which came out Tuesday.
Kearney moved into the MaxPreps Nebraska Top 10 rankings by climbing a couple of spots to ninth over the weekend as the Bearcats continue to add to the state's second longest streak which now stands at 18 straight wins. Gretna, the Cornhusker State's top-ranked team, holds the state's third longest streak, at 15, and hasn't lost since dropping back to back contests to Class B foes Aurora and York in late December and early January respectively.
Neligh-Oakdale is in the midst of the state's fourth best streak of 12 straight wins, while Winnebago and Kearney Catholic make the top five this week with 11 game-winning streaks.
As teams get hot at season's end, of course they climb in the polls both locally and nationally, as is evidence of Nebraska's 10 hottest boys basketball programs. Taking a look at this week's MaxPreps power rankings, and comparing them to last Friday's, one school in particular climbed by leaps and bounds in the national poll.
Class C2's Neligh-Oakdale made a power surge like no other in Nebraska climbing 287 spots to 3,004th nationally in just a matter of days. Kearney and Boys Town, meanwhile, jumped 75 and 64 rungs in a positive manner respectively. Seven of this week's Top 10 selectees moved upward in the national poll, while the other three programs slipped just slightly.
Top-ranked Gretna, of course, is the highest ranked Cornhusker State program nationally at No. 151. Scottsbluff also made the Top 500 with its No. 467 ranking. Kearney was the only other member of this week's Top 10 to crack MaxPreps' Top 1,000 rankings at No. 647 out of the 19,329 schools that are entered into MaxPreps' power ranking database.
Crawford, Nebraska's lone remaining unbeaten, is the only member of this week's Top 10 to lose ground in the state poll, but move up in the national rankings, rising seven spots to 7,168th.
Ten boys basketball programs have won eight straight games, or more, to find a spot in our latest Nebraska Top 10 and are ready for the rip roaring postseason basketball fun coming their way in March. On the first line we have provided the school, its won-loss record through Monday's District action and the winning streak the school is currently on.
The second line lists each school's MaxPreps power ranking as of Tuesday – both locally and nationally. Line three gives readers a heads up on the school's scoring average during the winning streak it is currently on. Tuesday's action was not included this week since those contests began after this Top 10 was posted.
Nebraska's Top 10 boys basketball winning streaks
1. Crawford (24-0) – 24 straight winsClass D2 No. 9, No. 104 Nebraska, 7,168th Nationally
1,488 (62.0) – 820 (34.2)
2. Kearney (21-4) – 18 straight winsClass A No. 4, No. 9 Nebraska, 647th Nationally
1,123 (62.4) – 841 (46.7)
3. Gretna (23-2) – 15 straight winsClass B No. 1, No. 1 Nebraska, 151st Nationally
972 (64.8) – 598 (39.9)
4. Neligh-Oakdale (Neligh) (24-3) – 12 straight winsClass C2 No. 4, No. 42 Nebraska, 3,004th Nationally
767 (63.9) – 645 (53.8)
5. Winnebago (26-2) – 11 straight winsClass C1 No. 3, No. 14 Nebraska, 775th Nationally
897 (81.5) – 538 (48.9)
5. Kearney Catholic (Kearney) (21-5) – 11 straight winsClass C1 No. 8, No. 30 Nebraska, 1,846th Nationally
681 (61.9) – 497 (45.2)
7. Boys Town (20-6) – 10 straight winsClass C1 No. 5, No. 19 Nebraska, 1,072nd Nationally
738 (73.8) – 512 (51.2)
8. Riverside (Cedar Rapids) (22-3) – 8 straight winsClass D2 No. 1, No. 45 Nebraska, 3,108th Nationally
621 (77.6) – 272 (34.0)
8. Bruning-Davenport/Shickley (Bruning) (19-4) – 8 straight winsClass D1 No. 5, No. 80 Nebraska, 5,270th Nationally
463 (57.9) – 301 (37.6)
8. Scottsbluff (23-2) – 8 straight winsClass B No. 3, No. 7 Nebraska, 467th Nationally
615 (76.9) – 408 (51.0)
